Altercation (Playmaker Duet #1; Prescott Family #4; Love In All Places #6)

by Mignon Mykel

  Porter should have offered to take mine, I thought with a small laugh.

  Of the two I was waiting for, Nico came out first.

  “Asher!” he hollered, coming near.

  I grinned. “Hey, Nico. The car’s unlocked.”

  “Fantastic. Your boy should be out soon.” He stopped in front of us to kiss Marie on the cheek. “Your husband’s a rockstar. Talk him into re-signing.”

  Marie laughed lightly. “You’ll have to tell the kids that. They’re pretty excited about the possibility of retirement.”

  “Ant’s retiring?” I asked.

  Marie nodded and Nico added, “The fucker didn’t announce it until we were thirty-thousand feet in the air on the way home. Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to swear. Are the kids around?”

  Shaking her head with a grin, Marie answered, “No, they’re at home. You’re fine, Nico.”

  “Good, good.” He turned his attention to me. “I’ll see you at the car. Where’d you park?”

  I gave him the general location and he headed off. I said hello to other players I knew as they filtered out, and eventually it got to the point that only a few players were left.

  Where was he?

  Ant came out shortly after and a short conversation later, he and Marie left, too. I would miss them if Ant didn’t come back next season. They definitely were the matriarch and patriarch of the team.

  I leaned forward to look down the hall. The locker room door opened, but it wasn’t Porter. It was Stein. He nodded his hello, but that was it.

  I crossed my arms and puffed out my cheeks, tapping my ballet flat for something to do.

  Finally, finally, the door opened again and out walked Porter, bags in hand. I grinned at him.

  “Hey, stranger.”

  “Hey, beautiful.”

  When he reached me, he leaned in for a kiss, his gear still thrown over his shoulder, and his beard still on his face.

  “Let me take your suitcase,” I told him, reaching for it even though I knew he’d protest. I was quick though, snatching it from him.

  “Asher,” he warned.

  “No need to get snippy,” I told him over my shoulder, grinning at him sassily. “We have things to do. Chop, chop.”

  “You’re such a smartass.” His voice had a laugh to it.

  “A beautiful smartass.”

  “You know it.”

  At the car, Nico was already sitting inside, with the trunk popped open. I hoisted Porter’s suitcase inside and he dropped his gear bag in as well.

  “So, what was that dirty proposition?” I asked, curious.

  “Shh,” he said behind a laugh, closing the trunk. “Not around Nico.”

  I lifted my brows. “That dirty?”

  He grinned. “That dirty.”

  “Hm,” I murmured. “I’m curious now.”

  Snaking his arm around me, he pulled me close and leaned down to kiss me full and well. God, I loved his lips on mine.

  “Later,” he promised against my lips.

  Nico opened the passenger door, leaning out. “Stop the tonsil hockey, guys. We got shit to do.”

  If either of us was a smartass, it was Porter, because he simply raised his middle finger in the air while going back in for an even more thorough kiss, truly giving meaning to tonsil hockey. I laughed against his mouth and pushed my head away from him. “Porter!”

  He grinned and rubbed my hip, finally behaving. “Love you.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I walked around to the driver’s side and folded the seat down so I could get into the back. After all, I was the only one who fit back there. Before stepping in though, I tossed over my shoulder, “I love you too.”

  He slapped my ass before I could get in. “Yeah. I know.”

  Nico left thirty minutes before, leaving just Ash and I in the townhouse for the night. We were heading out in the morning, on a seven-a.m. flight.

  Tonight, Asher was making us sleep on an air mattress, all because we flipped our mattress for the summer tenants. I wasn’t really looking forward to it—our mattress was fucking comfortable—but I wasn’t planning on getting all that much sleep anyway.

  Lounging on the couch after a joint shower—and a face shave, because Asher wanted my beard shorter again—I had my feet kicked up on the coffee table with an arm thrown around Asher, who leaned against me, the middle of her back to my side. She was thumbing through her phone and I glanced over to see she was texting someone.

  “Who you talking to?” I asked, curious. “Ace?”

  She shook her head and closed out of her screen, looking over her shoulder at me, smiling. “My friend, Carter.”

  I lifted my brows, even though I trusted her and didn’t think she’d ever step out on me. With her past, she craved stability, and I wouldn’t think she’d do anything to complicate that.

  “I haven’t talked to her since I left boot camp.”

  Her. Okay, yeah.

  “She texted me, said she got my number from her brother and that she knew I’d ghost on her but she was going to haunt me,” Asher said with a small laugh, leaning away from me to toss her phone on the table.

  “You haven’t talked to her in two years, and she still reached out?”

  “She was my first real friend. Then Avery.”

  “And then me. And I’m your best friend.”

  Asher shifted, turning so she could lay on the couch, her head in my lap. “The very best.”

  I grinned, running my hand through her ponytail. “Tell me about her?”

  “Well,” Asher started, a small smile on her face. “She comes from a good family like yours. I met her in receiving, basically when you lose your identity in boot camp. She was really easy to get along with. We were pretty thick for the eight or whatever weeks I was there.”

  “You never said why you left.”

  She shook her head. “Just wasn’t cut out for it.” Before I could say something, she reached up and tapped my chin. “You said you had a dirty proposition for me.”

  At the reminder, I could feel my cock starting to swell. It was an exciting proposition…

  “So, on the flight home, I uh,” I paused, licking my bottom lip. This wasn’t the easiest thing to admit, and I wasn’t entirely sure it was something a guy should admit to his girl. “So, when I went down on you last night? It was the first, um, the first time I’d done that. Anyway,” I rushed on before she could interrupt, “I was doing some research on it and one thing led to another, and articles led to videos and pictures.” I could feel my face heating. “But I thought maybe we could get pierced. Together. Not pierced together, but get piercings together.”

  It was a sexy thought in my head. Not so much now that I blustered that speech.

  Asher sat up again and faced me, sitting crossed-legged. “Pierced…where?”

  “Well, like, I figured because we both are into tattoos and piercings, I thought it would be fun and interesting. And they say it helps the girl get off, and I know sometimes you have issues because of when you were, you know, raped.”

  “Like…my clit?” Her brows drew in but up at the same time.

  I rubbed my chin. “Yeah?”

  She shifted, still frowning. “And what about you?”

  “A Prince Albert.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Basically through the head.”

  If anything, her frown deepened. “Would that hurt?”

  “You or me?”

  She shrugged a shoulder. “Me?”

  “The research all said that, for most women, it enhanced things.”

  She chewed on her lower lip but kept her eyes on mine. I could see the wheels turning in her head.

  I shook my head. “It was just an idea.”

  “When would we do it?”

  I was shocked by the question. “Seriously?”

  She shrugged again and nodded. “Why not? Neither of us is a virgin to needles. Even if
you started taking yours out.” She reached out to touch my healing earlobe.

  “Only because you showed me pictures of gauged ears that needed surgery to fix!” Those images haunted me.

  She grinned wide. “When?” she repeated.

  I looked to the clock hanging over the fireplace mantel. The fireplace that was never used. “Tonight, maybe?”

  “Alright. Yeah.”

  On the way to the tattoo studio Asher and I had been to a few months prior, we exchanged piercing stories. The guy who did my nipple had been a scary ass mofo, but the piercers in Wisconsin tended to be.

  Asher’s facial piercing was done right before she ended up in Wisconsin, and she said it didn’t hurt at all.

  I thought this one had the potential to hurt a little. Her skin was so slick and thin there…

  And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about a needle going through my dick, but I was just as excited as I was nervous.

  Now we sat, waiting our turn. It was getting late, and because of that, we’d been waiting for nearly forty minutes before the piercer came out. When we first got here, it had been a chick piercer and while I didn’t want Ash uncomfortable, I sure as fuck would rather have a chick piercing her than this fucker walking toward us.

  “C’mon back,” the guy said. He was heavily tattooed and pierced, but I hadn’t seen him before in my trips to this studio.

  Asher glanced at me before walking after him, me hot on her heels. I fought the urge to put a possessive hand on her back as we passed tattoo chairs with guys openly gawking at her.

  Yeah, she’s fucking beautiful, but she’s mine, assholes.

  In the private piercing room, the guy pointed to the table. “Whoever’s first, hop on up.”

  Asher looked at me, her brows raised. She wanted me to go first.

  “Fuck,” I breathed out before moving to the table.

  It was singlehandedly the most painful minutes of my life. First, it was uncomfortable as all fucking get out, having some man handling my junk. Then there was the needle, but fuck me, when he put the curved bar in.

  Asher’s eyes had been glued on my dick the entire time and she was looking a little pale.

  My breathing was a bit rushed from the pain I just experienced—was still experiencing every time the damn piercer moved the bar to clean the area—but I reached for her hand. “You good, beautiful?”

  She was frowning when she finally turned her eyes to mine.

  The red in them was extremely prominent.

  “I don’t think I can do that.”

  My brows shot up. “I just had a needle in my dick. You can do it.” She wasn’t backing out on me.

  The piercer finished me up while jumping in our conversation. “It’s still a painful piercing, but your hood might be a better bet than the actual clit piercing. Rather than through the clit, the piercing is through the skin fold on top and your jewelry rests on your clit.”

  She bit her lip and I could see her weighing it in her mind. I winced at a pinch down below but still tugged her near so I could whisper in her ear. “Just imagine having that piece of metal against you. Rubbing your clit.” Asher was definitely a clit-stimulated orgasm woman. Although I was hopeful that with my own metal, we could get her off in more ways.

  “Fine,” she breathed out.

  When it was her turn, she lay on her back and demanded I take her hand.

  That I could do.

  I heard the most colorful words coming from Asher’s pretty mouth in the next few minutes, that I almost laughed. If her hold on my hand wasn’t so fucking tight, I probably would have.

  “Good fucking Lord, that shit hurts.” She squeezed her eyes shut and I watched, just as she had, when her curved bar was placed. Fuck, I was already excited to play with it.

  Unfortunately, my cock wasn’t too thrilled currently, with the extra blood flow it was receiving.

  “Your hood will heal relatively quickly. Sex can resume as soon as you both are comfortable. No oral sex until completely healed and condoms for the first month.” Damn. I had gotten really used to taking her bare.

  I was going to have to buy fucking stock in condoms again, because there were nights we did it three plus times. And now that we were going to have some off days…

  “We so should have done it before we left,” I mumbled to her as we walked out to pay.

  She nodded before saying, “You’re not getting near me for a week.”

  My brows shot up. “A fucking week?”

  “I’ll re-evaluate in the morning.”

  I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. God, I hoped she was joking.

  I handed my card over when we were rung up, and the piercer handed me the receipt to sign. “Discount on the house. Congrats on the win.”

  Some people would call an athlete out by name the moment they see you. And then there were guys like this one, where I thought I was flying under the radar.

  “We’ve got HIPAA and that shit. You don’t have to worry about that,” he added.

  “Well, thanks, man,” I finally said, signing over my name. I added a decent tip, covering essentially the discount and a little more, and handed him back the slip.

  “Ya’ll have a good night.”

  I took Asher’s hand as we left, waiting until we were near the car before I asked, “You’re seriously not going to have sex with me for a week?”

  She laughed lightly. “I said I’d re-evaluate in the morning. Right now, the pain is still a faint echo throughout my body.”

  I nodded because I got that. “Can I at least look at it when we get home?” I was really fucking excited to see the pretty gem lying against her clit.

  She just laughed and shook her head, never answering me.

  I must have fallen asleep in the car, because when I woke, it was to the alarm on my phone. I frowned, looking around.

  I was on the air mattress in Porter’s room, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. I rubbed my hands down my face roughly as I yawned, letting my alarm go off while I got myself together.

  Looking down, I saw that I was in Porter’s Championship shirt and I had to fight a giggle. It didn’t take him long to get it on me.

  He liked his shirts on me.

  I rolled off the mattress and started to pull the sheets off. We told the cleaning service that there would be a set of sheets in the wash. Hopefully they wouldn’t forget about them.

  I was almost tempted to just stuff them in one of our bags to take back to Wisconsin, but both of our suitcases were busting at the seams.

  After letting the air go in the mattress, I stood with the sheets and brought them to the hallway laundry closet, starting the load, and heading into the kitchen. Porter was there, throwing together omelets, if I had to guess.

  “Morning,” I said, shuffling in and toward a stool at the counter.

  “Morning, beautiful.” He turned down the heat on the stove before grabbing a plate and turning toward me, sliding the plate in front of me. “Breakfast. We have to leave in forty minutes.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Knowing he’d scold me if I waited for him—been there, done that—I started eating the plain cheese omelet he made for me.

  When his omelet was finished, he moved to the chair beside me, stuffing his face much quicker than I was eating. “You still owe me a show and tell,” he told me between mouthfuls.

  “Oh I do, do I? You watched him stick the needle in me. You saw plenty.”

  “Don’t you want to see mine?”

  Honestly…

  Yeah.

  But I shook my head. “I can wait.”

  I should have known he wouldn’t buy it. “You lie,” he said around a laugh, still shoveling his food in his mouth. “You hurt today?”

  I lifted my eyes to the ceiling as I tried to focus there. I moved in my seat to check before shaking my head. “No. Not really.” I looked over at him. “Do you?”
>
  “Pissing was a bit of a challenge. Fucking pissed blood.” Another bite went in his mouth but I quickly lost my appetite.

  “Is that normal?” Surely that wasn’t normal.

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  “For how long?”

  He shrugged, taking another bite. “I think it’s different for everyone.”

  I don’t think I’d be okay with blood in my pee. No, thank you.

  I moved off my stool and took my plate to the sink, handwashing it quickly so it could be put away. “I’m going to change.”

  “Wait!” He shoveled the last of his omelet in his mouth. “I want to see it.”

  I shook my head, grinning. “Alright, but we really have to get ready to go.”

  I should have figured ‘seeing it’ was going to take a little bit longer than a ‘show me yours’ session. Hands got in the way of that, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that yes, the piercing did do great things to my clit.

  …And I found myself excited for the day I could feel Porter’s piercing inside me.

  It was the last family get-together of the year and we were all crammed in the lake house up in Northern Wisconsin, the same lake house we’d been visiting for years. It used to belong to my grandparents, but they’d given it to Mom and Dad.

  Even my dad’s best friend and once teammate, “Uncle” Ketty, and his family were here, which was great because Asher hadn’t met my friend, Teagh, yet. She hadn’t been able to make it to McKenna’s wedding and with schedules and whatever, this was the first time I’d even seen her in years.

  The only person missing—and thank the fucking Lord would forever be missing—was Jenna. The first words out of Jonny’s face when he arrived the other day were the words the entire family held their breath for since the moment he married her.

  They were getting divorced.

  Jonny didn’t look entirely happy about it, but I guess I could maybe understand it. Jonny and Jenna had been together since high school. They broke up a few times, but when it became known he was going to be someone in the hockey world…

  Well, Jenna came back.